2 comments:

They give the example of George Washington. But I'd disagree. I daresay the most anti-British US President must be Andrew Jackson. He blamed them for the death of his mother, and was very nearly killed by an officer for refusing to shine the officer's boots. In contrast, General Washington had served alongside the British and never seemed to bear them any particular animosity.

But the idea that President Obama is the most hostile US President to the UK in recent history (post-WWI I think, is plenty far back to be considered "recent"), however, is accurate. As much as they'd like to downplay it, the Administration has offered snub after snub to the British, and without any specific cause (as contrasted by the efforts to develop a closer relationship with Putin, Tsar of all the Russias, only to be rebuffed again and again and again).

I don't disagree with anything you say, Mike. It's as if he believes that his personal preferences somehow are sufficient to justify a complete realignment in decades of alliances. But those alliances exist for reasons that are completely independent of his mind or his preferences. You can't turn Iran into an ally, though he has tried. You can't expect Russia to become an ally unless some severe threat to Russia pops up, and then only insofar as they need us.

With the UK, we have some shared values and interests -- and most of all, however much it galls him, with the part of the UK represented by Farage and/or the Tories.